Eucharist they held Baptism without Crism ineffectual they used Rebaptization they permitted the Husband to dissolve Matrimony when he pleased and denyed Prayers for the Dead and the Eternity of Hell Fire and that the Souls were not in Bliss till the Resurrection and taught that then there should be no Women at all but that they should be converted into Men. Chazinzarii were so called from Chazus which in their Language signifieth the Cross for they taught that the Cross was only to be worshipped therefore they were named Cross-Worshippers they professed all Nestorianism The Thnetopsychitae held that the Souls dyed with the Bodies Theocatus Nostor were such as reprehended some of God's Actions and Words Ethnophrones were Paganising Christians who with Christianity taught Gentile Superstition But passing over the rest let us pass on to Mahomet the greatest of all Impostors The Life of Mahomet SOME Men have brave Names but mean Actions some brave Actions and mean Names and some both brave Names and Actions In the first number Mahomet may not be unfitly reckoned who in excellency of Name was second to none and yet in depravity of Manners had few Equals for we are assured by the learned in the Arabian Language that Mahomet comes of a Word signifying Praise and Honour and that this Notation of his Name was but a Presage of his future Actions whereby he merited and purchased both Others say Mahomet imports Thanksgiving which is to be understood with respect to their Duty of Gratitude who believe he procured great Benefits for them And that there might want nothing of lucky Abodement in the Name of this great Impostor some of his flattering Doctors paraphrase it by a Man of Desires But be his name what it will we shall proceed to give an account of the Life of this Impostor according as we find it written by the Saracens themselves The Book of the Generation of Mahomet the Messenger of God the Prayer and Salvation of God be upon him from Adam and Eve to the time when God brought him forth gracious perfect and fit for himself When as Rabachbar had learned out of the Scriptures and by Astrology that this Prophet should be born to the World he heard that there was a Man born in Jeseras a City of Arabia having all such Marks and Tokens as he had fore-seen by the Prophesies and his Arts viz. a spot on his Fore-head a print between his Shoulders c. and to satisfie his desire he went thither to see where finding those Tokens fulfilled in young Mahomet he thereupon expounded the dark Mystery of his far-fetch'd Light learned of his Master Kabelmedi in this manner When Adam was newly created as he stood up his Brain shaked and made a Noise as the Leaves do which are shaken with the Wind whereat Adam wondring God said unto him The sound which thou hast heard is the sign of the Prophets and Messengers of my Commandments take heed therefore that thou commit this Seed of Light only to worthy Loyns and to a clean Womb and this Light of Mahomet that should be born shined from the face of Adam as the Sun or Moon at the full And when he had begotten Seth that Light passed instantly from the Face of Adam into the Face of Eve insomuch that the Birds of the Air and Beasts of the Earth wondred at her Beauty yea the Angels every day saluted her and brought her Odours out of Paradise till she brought forth Seth alone having before at every Burthen brought forth a Brother and a Sister Seth inherited this Light which remained between Heaven and Earth the Angels thereby ascending and descending upon Seth and crying always Rejoyce thou Earth worthy of the Light of Mahomet on him be Prayer and Salvation of God Adam drawing near to his end declared unto him by his Testament the Mysteries of that Light and the Genealogy of the Prophets Then descended Gabriel accompanied with threescore and ten thousand Angels bearing every one of them a white Leaf and a Pen which signed the Writing for the Continuance of the Order of the prophetical Generation Seth received this Writing and was cloathed with a double red Garment shining as the Sun as soft as the Violet Flower From him it passed by Succession to Noah and Sem then to Abraham at whose Birth two Lights from the East and West meeting in the midst lightned the whole World and the Angels were heard singing that it was the light of the Prophet Mahomet who should be born of his Seed whose Words should be the virtue of God This Light passed from Abraham to the face of Hagar being with Child and after to Ishmael and God told him that the Soul of Mahomet in the beginning of the Creation was mingled with his and that his name in Heaven should be Asmet in Earth Mahomet and in Paradise Abvaltrazim At this Sarah grieved untill three Angels comforted her with the Promise of Isaac From Ishmael it removed to Keydar his Son who being endued with seven Gifts marryed Nulta of the Land of Isaac but being warned by an Oracle he took to Wife Algadira an Arabian and after by divine warning carried the Chest of this Light unto Jacob. Then was Hamel born to him and received the same Light in which succeeded Thebickt Hamiessa Adoth Adure Adne Machat Nizar Musar Aliez Madraca Hoocima Knieva Anofro Melic Falhrem Luic Galiben Kab Murran Cudai Abdamenef Hesim a man by divine Testimony free of all uncleanness To him did all Kings offer their Daughters in Marriage and amongst the rest Constantine which he refused and married Selina the Daughter of Geit and had by her Abdalmutalib whose Light caused Rain in the Drought To him an Elephant prostrated himself and said with Man's Voice Selvation be on you and on the Light that shineth out of your Reins Divinity Fame Honour and Victory be on you and that there should proceed from him a King greater than all the Kings of the Earth Another time as he slept on the Stone which was placed by Abraham in his Oratory at Mecca he dreamed of a Chain reaching East and West and to Heaven and to the Depth which was presently converted into a flourishing Herb. Noe and Abraham presented themselves Interpreters of this dream Abdalla's Son the Father of Mahomet had a Tutor given unto him to defend him from his Enemies who seemed a Man but was none He was preserved from the lying in wait of the Jews by threescore and ten Angels which seemed men He wedded Hermina and therefore two hundred Women perished for his love some hanging some burning themselves When the prescribed time was come in the Month Dulheia on a Friday night God bad Ariduran to open the Gates of Paradice that the innermost of his Secrets might be manifested for it pleaseth me said he this night to transport the Light of my Prophet from the Reins of Abdalla into the Womb of Hermina and that it come into the World This
Egypt the Captain presenteth the Alcoran to the Bassa to kiss and then it is laid up again the Captain is feasted and presented with a Garment of Cloth of Gold They used to cut in pieces the Camel whith his Furniture which carried the Alcoran and reserve these pieces for holy Relicks The Alcoran also is elevated that all might see and adore it which done every one with Joy returns to his own home Now as to the Ceremonies they use in their Circumsicion they are circumcised about eight years of Age the Child is carried on Horse-back with a Tullipant on his Head to the Temple with a Torch before him on a spear deckt with Flowers which is left with the Priest as his Fee who first nipped the end of the Skin of the Child's yard with Pincers to mortifie it then with his Sissers he nimbly cuts it off presently a powder is laid to ease the Pain and afterwards Salt The Child's hands being loosed looketh as he is taught â—y the Priest towards Heaven and lifting up the first Finger of his right hand saith these Words God is one God and Mahomet is his Prophet Then he is carried â—ome in haste after some Prayers and Offerings of the Church sometimes the Child is circumcised at home â—nd receiveth his name not then but when he is Born They Feast then commonly three days which ended â—â—e Child is carried with Pomp to the Bath and from thence home where he is presented with divers gifts from his Parent 's Friends Women are not circumcised but are tyed to make the Profession of their Mahumetan Faith They believe the forbidden Tree was Wheat which had seven Ears whereof Adam plucked one wherein were five Grains of which two he eat two he gave to Eve and one he carried away This Grain was bigger than any Egg and being bruised brought forth all kinds of Seed They believe that Adam was received after the expulsion from Paradise into India and Eve into Nubia that Adam was covered with three Leaves of Taradice Eve with her Hair they met together in Araffe Further as concerning Eve she was made of a Rib of the left side for otherwise she had been as strong as the Man They believe the Devils first dwelt in the Earth seven thousand years after them Angels They say the Ground of Paradice is of Gold enammelled with Emeralds and Hyacinths planted with every fruitful Tree watered with streams of Milk and Hony and wine the Day is of a thousand years Continuance The People shall have whatsoever can be desired they shall be cloathed in all Colours except black which is the proper Colour of Mahomet They shall all be of the Stature of Adam in Resemblance like Christ never encreasing or diminishing As soon as they are entred shall be set before them the Liver of the Fish Albehbut and whatsoever Dainties they can desire they shall not need going to Stool any more than the Child in the Womb but they shall sweat out all Superfluities of Scent like Musk they shall eat but for Desight not for Hunger unlawful Meats as Swines Flesh they shall refrain And if you list to know why this Beast is unclean understand That Jesus on a time called forth Japhet to tell his Disciples the History of the Ark Who told them That by the weight of the Ordure the Ark leaned on one side whereupon Noe consulting with God was bidden to bring in the Elephant thither out of whose Dung mixed with Mans came forth a Hog which rooted in that Mire with his Snout and by the stink thereof was produced out of his Nose a Mouse which knawed the Bords of the Ark Noe fearing this danger was bidden to strike the Lyon on the Fore-head and by the Lyon's Breath was a Cat engendred mortal Enemy to the Mouse But to return from this stinking Tale to refresh our selves with the like Sweets of this Paradise They believe that there they have the Wives that there they had and other Concubines whom how when wheresoever they will That Wine shall be lawful there though here unlawful the reason whereof Mahomet said was That the Angels Arots and Merot were sometime sent to instruct and govern the World forbidding Men Wine Injustice and Murder But a Woman having whereof to accuse her Husband invited them to Dinner and made them drunk They inflamed with a double heat of Wine and Lust could not obtain that their desire of their fair Hostess except one would teach her the Word of ascending to Heaven and the other of descending Thus she mounted up to Heaven and upon enquiry of the matter she was made the Morning Star and they put to their choice whether they would be punished in this World or the World to come they accepting their Punishment in this are hanged by Chains with their Head in a Pit of Babel till the day of Judgment Hell saith Mahomet hath a Floor of Brimstone smoaky pitchy with stinking Flames with deep Pits of scalding Pitch and sulpherous Flames wherein the damned are punished daily the Trees bear most loathsome Fruits which they eat The day of Judgment shall be in this sort In that day God will command the Angel of Death to kill every Creature which being done he shall ask him if nothing be alive Adriel the Angel of Death shall answer nothing but my self then go thy ways betwixt Paradise and Hell and last of all kill thy self Thus he folded in his Wings prostrate on the Earth shall strangle himself with such a bellowing noise as would terrifie the very Angels if they were alive Thus the World shall be empty forty Years Then shall God hold the Heaven and Earth in his Fist and say Where are now the mighty Men the Kings and Princes of the World Tell me if you be true whose is the Kingdom and Empire and Powers Repeating these Words three times he shall raise up Seraphiel and say Take this Trumpet and go to Jerusalem and sound This Trumpet is of five hundred years Journey At that Sound all Souls shall come forth and disperse themselves unto their own Bodies and their Bones shall be gathered together Forty years after he shall sound again and then the Bones shall resume Flesh and Sinews After forty Years the third Sound shall warn the Souls to re-possess their Bodies and a Fire from the West shall drive every Creature into Jerusalem When they have here swam forty Years in their own Sweat they shall with much vexation come to Adam and say Father Adam Father Adam Why hast thou begotten us to these Miseries and Torments Why sufferest thou us to hang between Hope and Fear Pray to God that he will finish his Determination of us between Paradise and Hell Adam shall excuse his unworthiness for his Disobedience and send them to Noe Noe will post them to Abraham Abraham to Moses he shall send them to Jesus Christ to him they shall come and say The Spirit Word and Power of God let
being done as Abdalla the Judge and Lord of the Arabians went into the House of Prayer he perceived a great Light to lighten from his House up towards Heaven and presently died On the twelfth day of Rab on a Tuesday Mahomet was circumcised and all frolick And then all Idols fell and became black all Kingdoms were destroyed and not one stood upright Lucifer was cast into the bottom of the Sea and in forty days could not get out and then called his Fellows and told them that Mahomet was born with the power of the Sword who should take away all their Power The same also God caused to be proclaimed in Heaven and Earth His Mother said that she was delivered of him without pain and Angelical Birds came to nourish the Child and a man clothed in white presented him with three Keys like to Pearls which he took the Key of Victory they Key of the Laws and the Key of Prophecy And after came three Persons with shining Faces presenting him with a Caldron of Emeralds with four handles which Mahomet accepted as a sign of his Rule over all the World The Birds Clouds Winds Angels contended for the nourishment of the Child But the case was determined by Heavenly Voice affirming that he should not be taken from the hands of men An Ass almost famished worshipped him and receiving him on her back became Herald to this new Prophet with man's voice proclaiming the worthiness of her Carriage Three men carried him up into a Mountain of which one opened him from the Breast unto the Navil and washed his Entrails with Snow the second cleared his Heart in the midst and took out of it a black grain saying that it was the portion of the Devil The third made him whole again Seraphin nourished him three years and Gabriel nine and twenty who gave unto him in the fortieth year of his age the Law and carried him to Heaven Afterwards Gabriel with threescore and ten pair of Wings came to Mahomet in the Chamber of Aissa his best beloved Wife and said that God would have him to visit him where he is and brought with him the Beast Elmparac or Albarach of nature between a Mule and an Ass This Beast told Mahomet that he would not take him on his back until he had prayed God for him His steps were as far as one could see so that in the twinkling of an Eye he had brought Mahomet to Jerusalem Then Gabriel with his Girdle tied the Beast to a Rock and carried Mahomet on his shoulders into Heaven where he knocked and the Porter opened Here Mahomet saw footsteps of Angels and prayed twice on his knees for them and amongst the rest old Father Adam rejoycing for such a Son and commending him to his Prayers Then he brought him to the second Heaven which was a Journey of five hundred years and so forth on to the seventh Heaven Here he saw the Angelical People every one of which was a thousand times greater than the World and every of them had threescore and ten thousand Heads and every Head threescore and ten thousand Mouthes and every Mouth seventeen hundred Tongues praying to God in seven hundred thousand Languages And he saw one Angel weeping and he asked the cause who answered that he was Sin and Mahomet prayed for him Then Gabriel commended him to another Angel and he to another and so forth in order till he came before God and his Throne Then God whose Face was covered with threescore and ten thousand Cloaths of Light and from whom Mahomet stood two stones cast below touched him with his Hand the Coldness whereof pierced to the Marrow of of his Back-bone and God said I have imposed on thee and on thy People Prayers When he was returned as far as the fourth Heaven Moses counselled him to return back to obtain ease unto the People which could not bear so many Prayers which he did oftentimes till there remained but few Thus returning to his Elmparac he rode back to his House at Mecca all this was done in the tenth part of the Night But when he was requested to do thus much in the Peoples sight he answered Praised be God I am a Man and an Apostle The Book Ascar telleth further that in this Journey Mahomet heard a Womans Voice crying Mahomet Mahomet but he held his Peace Afterwards another called him but he gave no Answer Mahomet asked the Angel who they were He answered that the one was she which published the Jews Law and if he had answered her all his Disciples should have been Jews the other was she which delivered the Gospel whom if he had answered all his Followers had been Christians Mahomet Comunicating his Doctrin to the People w th their Pilgramage to Mecca Pag. 50 One of their Chronicles telleth of his Martial Affairs This Chronicle from Adam to Noe one thousand two hundred two and forty years from thence to Abraham one thousand and fourscore thence to Moses five hundred and fifteen after him to David five hundred threescore and nine and from this time to Christ one thousand three hundred and fifty from whence to Mahomet is numbred six hundred and twenty in all five thousand three hundred threescore and sixteen from Adam to Mahomet All the Prophets were in number an hundred and twenty thousand and the Messengers of God three hundred and fifteen whereas Adam Seth Esdrik Noe Abraham were Hebrews Huth Scale Ishmael Schaib Mahomet were Arabians But to leave these fabulous nay blasphemous Relations it is convenient to entertain the Reader with a true account of the Life of this infamous Impostor The Life of MAHOMET according to the truth BY Birth he was of Jathrip an obscure Village then not far from Medina his Father called Abdalla an Idolatrous Pagan his Mother named Hemina as perverse a Jewess Deprived of both his Parents when but two years old he was left unto the care of an Unkle who not able to give him Education nor willing to be at the charge to keep him any longer sold him at sixteen years of age to the Ismaelites by whom exposed to sale in the open Markets he was bought by one Abdalmutalif a Wealthy Merchant By him employ'd at first in Drudgery and servile Offices till noting his great Wit and fitness for better Services he at last used him as his Factor sending him with his Camels and loads of Merchandise into Syria Persia Egypt and other Places wherein he did behave himself with such dexterity that he much increased his Master's Wealth and his own Estimation Of Person he is said to be low and withall scald-headed but otherwise comely to the Eye and of good aspect Much troubled with the Falling-sickness which Infirmity he made good use of afterwards affirming that those Fits were nothing but Heavenly Raptures in which he did converse with the Angel Gabriel He is said to have been also well skill'd in Magick by which he taught a white Pidgeon to feed
going up into the upper Chambers she finds this deplorable representation of immodesty and impudence but the power and influence of Prophetical integrity brought the Woman to that pass that she was drawn in to wallow in the same mire of unshamefacedness whom therefore he advised to continue always a constant adherer to the unblameable Truth Going out of the House in this posture about three of the clock the other men and Women marched barefoot after him crying out with a horrid Voice Woe woe woe the heavy wrath of God the heavy wrath of God c. In this fanatick Errour did this Hypocondriack Rabble run about the Streets making such horrid noise that all Amsterdam seem'd to shake and tremble at it as if it had been assaulted by a publick Enemy The Burghers not having the lest hint of such a strange and unlook'd for accident for this furious action happen'd in the dead of the night took up Arms and getting these People lost to all shame and Modesty up to the Palace clapt them into Prison Being so disposed of they would own no thoughts of shame or Chastity but would justifie their most white and naked truth In the mean time the Fire being smelt they brake into the House where it was and wondring at their casting of their Clothes into the Fire which had since reached the Bed they made a shift to quench it But the other distracted and mad People such as deserved to be sent to their Kindred the Savages and Heathens inconvincibly persisted in their pestiferous Opinion and so upon the fifth of May the same year they expiated their wicked Impieties with their Death Ones farewel Saying was Praise the Lord incessantly Anothers was O God revenge thou our Sufferings Others cryed out Woe woe shut thine eyes LVIII The next we will bring upon the Stage are John Reeves and Lodowick Muggleton who would perswade us that they are the two last Witnesses and Prophets of Christ sent by his Spirit to seal the fore-heads of the Elect and Reprobate that one John Robins is the last great Antichrist and Son of Perdition spoken of by the Apostle in the Thessalonians because he sheweth lying signs and wonders and assumes to himself the Titles of the only God in that he calls himself Adam and Melchisedeck and Father of Jesus Christ in saying the three Persons in Trinity are Adam that is Himself Abel that is the Son Jesus and Cain that is the Holy Ghost many such Blasphemies they ascribe to him They affirm also that Christians using the Sword of Steel are ignorant of Jesus and Enemies to his Gospel and they teach that the two uncreated Substances of Earth and Water were eternally resident in the Presence of God the Creator that Death was from Eternity that the Person of the reprobate Angel or Serpent entred into the Womb of Eve and there died but quickened in her all manner of uncleanness that there is no Devil at all without the Body of Man or Woman but what dwells within them so that the Devil spoken of so often in the Scripture is man's Spirit of unclean Reason and cursed imagination that God the Father was a Spiritual man from Eternity and that in time his Spiritual Body brought a Natural Body that if the very God-head had not died that is say they the Soul of Christ which is the Eternal Father had not died all men had perished eternally that Moses and Eliah are Angels and did represent the Person of the Father in Heaven as they did the Person of the Son on Earth that Eliah was made Protector of God when God became a Child and that he filled the Lord Jesus with those great Revelations of his former Glory which he possessed in Heaven when he was the immortal Father and that it was Eliah who spake these words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased they say also that all the Ministry in this World whether Prophetical or Ministerial with all the Worship taught by them is a Lye and abomination to the Lord. Again they declare that whereas there are three Witnesses on Earth Water Blood and Spirit that by Water is meant the Commission given to Moses and the Prophets under the Law by Blood the Commission given to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel and by the Spirit is meant the Commission of the two Witnesses that were to come in this last age whose Ministry is invisible and Spiritual cutting off all formal worshipping of an invisible spiritual personal God they say there is hardly a Minister in the World that confesseth an invisible God but they preach a God of three Persons that is a Monster instead of one true Personal God they say that the true God is a distinct Body or Person as a Man is a distinct Body or Person Again they say that there is no Christian Magistrate in the World that hath any Authority from Christ to set up any invisible Form of Worship and that the Spirits and Bodies of men are both mortal both begot together and both of one nature that the Spirit is nothing without the Body and that is the Spirit alone that walks and works eats and drinks and dyes for the Spirit is a natural fire of Reason they say also that the Bodies or Persons of holy men wherein they lived and died shall not appear again any more but when the Saints are glorified they are absolutely of the very same glorious nature both in Spirit and Body as God is and that Believers Spirits are of the very same Divine nature of God This is the Sum of their Divinity and Philosophy as may be seen in their transcendent Spiritual Treatise as they call it which is sull of transcendent nonsence and blasphemies for here they lay the axe to the very root of Christianity in giving a new Father to our Saviour Jesus Christ in calling the Blessed Trinity a Monster in denying the Creation whilst they make Earth and Water eternal in making Angels and mens Souls mortal in making weak man Gods Protector and Author of that Divine knowledge which was in Christ in denying the Ministry of the Gospel and the Power of the Magistrates and the outward Worship of God and making the Souls of men corporeal in denying also the Resurrection of the Flesh and transforming men into the Divine nature By these and other wicked Tenets permitted and countenanced among us at this time we see what Christian Religion is come to in this Land LIX But before I quit this Theme it will not be altogether unseasonable that I give an account of the Ranters who are a sort of Beasts who neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud that is to say unclean ones such as hold no small correspondence with the Quakers their Lives and demeanours are much alike only what the Ranters act upon the Stage by an open profession of lewdness and irreligion the other do it within the Curtain by crafty and seemingly
with Cerdon maintained his Heresie and became his Successor in the time of Marcus Antoninus Philosophus one hundred thirty three years after Christ He held three Gods a visible invisible and a middle one that the Body of Christ was only a Phantasm that Christ by his Descent into Hell delivered thence Cain and the Sodomites and other Reprobates He condemned the eating of Flesh and the married Life he held that Souls only were saved permitted Women to baptize and condemned all War as unlawful Polycarpus called him the first begotten of the Devil Justin Martyr wrote a Book against him XXXIII 7. Tutianus whence came the Tutiani was a Syrian by Birth an Orator and familiar with Justin Martyr under whom he wrote a profitable Book against the Gentiles He flourished one hundred forty two Years after Christ his Disciples were also called Eneratita from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance or Continence for they abstain from Wine Flesh or Marriage When Justin Martyr was dead he composed his Tenents out of divers others He held that Adam after his Fall was never restored to Mercy that all Men are damned besides his Disciples that Women are made by the Devil He condemned the Law of Moses made use of Water instead of Wine in the Sacrament and denied that Christ was the Seed of David he wrote a Gospel of his own which he called Diatesseron and spread his Heresie through Pisidia and Cilicia XXXIV 8. Montanus Father of the Montanists His Heresie began about one hundred forty five Years after Christ by Nation he was a Phrygian and carried about with him two Strumpets Prisca and Maximilla who fled from their Husbands to follow him these took upon them to prophesie and their Dictates were held by Montanus for Oracles but at last he and they for Company hanged themselves his Disciples ashamed either of his Life or ignominious Death called themselves Cataphrygians He confounded the Persons in the Trinity saying That the Father suffered he held Christ to be mere Man and gave out that he himself was the Holy Ghost his Disciples baptized the dead denied Repentance and Marriage yet allowed of Incest They trusted to Revelations and Enthusiasms and not to the Scripture In the Eucharist they mingled the Bread with the Blood of an Infant not a Year old In Phrygia this Heresie began and spread it self over all Cappadocia XXXV 9. Origen gave Name to the Origanists whose Errors began to spread Anno Dom. 247. under Aurelian the Emperour and continued about three hundred thirty four years They were condemned first in the Council of Alexandria two hundred years after his death and again in the fifth General Council of Constantinople under Justinian the first They held a Revolution of Souls from their estate and condition after death into their Bodies again They held the Devils and Reprobates after one thousand years should be saved That Christ and the holy Church do no more see the Father than we see the Angels That the Son is co-essential with the Father but not co-eternal because say they the Father created both him and the Spirit That Souls were created long before this World and for sinning in Heaven were sent down into their Bodies as into Prisons They did also overthrow the whole Historical truth of Scriptures by their Allegories XXXVI 10. Paulus Samosatenus so called from Samosata near Euphrates where he was born a man of infinite pride commanding himself to be received as an Angel His Heresie broke out two hundred thirty two years after Christ and hath continued in the Eastern Parts ever since He held that Christ was merely Man and had no Being till his Incarnation That the Godhead dwelt not in Christ bodily but as in the Prophets of old by Grace and Efficacy and that he was only the external not the internal Word of God therefore they did not baptise in his Name for which the Council of Nice rejected their Baptism as none and ordered they should be re-baptized who were baptized by them He denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost allowed Circumcision took away such Psalms as were sung in honour of Christ and instead thereof ordered some in honour of himself to be sung in Churches by Women In the Synod of Antioch he was convicted by Malchion a Presbyter and condemned Anno 273. This Heresie was also embraced by Photinus Gelatian Bishop of Sirmium and propagated by him Anno 323. and thence they took the name of Photinians XXXVII 11. Manis a Persian by Birth and a Servant by Condition was Father of the Manichoran Seat he was flead alive for poysoning the King of Persia's Son yet his wicked Opinions raged in the World for three hundred and forty Years after his Death He held two Principals or Gods one good one bad condemned eating of Flesh Eggs and Milk held that God had Members and was substantially in every thing how base soever but was separate from them by Christ's coming and the Elect Manichorans He rejected the Old Testament and curtailed the New by excluding Christ's Genealogy he held Christ was the Serpent which deceived our first Parents saying that he feigned to dye and rose again and that it was really the Devil who truly was crucified He denyed the Resurrection and held Transmigration he affirmed that he was the Comforter whom Christ promised to send They worshipped the Sun and Moon and other Idols they condemned Marriages and permitted promiscuous Copulation they rejected Baptism as needless and all works of Charity they taught that our Will to Sin is natural and not acquired by the Fall that Sin is a Substance and not a Quality communicated from Parents to their Children they say they cannot sin deny the last Judgment and affirm that their Souls shall be taken up to the Globe of the Moon XXXVIII 12. Arrius whence sprung the Arrians was a Lybian by Birth by Profession a Presbyter of Alexandria His Heresie brake out two hundred and ninety Years before Christ and over-ran a great part of the Christian World They held Christ to be a Creature that he had a Man's Body but no humane Soul the Divinity supplying the room thereof they also held the Holy Ghost a Creature proceeding from a Creature that is Christ their Doxology was Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost they re-baptize the Orthodox Christians This Heresie was condemned by the Council of Nice under Constantine and Arrius himself in the midst of his Pomp seized with a Disentery voided his Guts in the Draught and so dyed XXXIX 13. Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople gave Name to the Macedonians They held that the Holy Ghost was a Creature and the Servant of God and that by the Holy Spirit was meant only a Power created by God and communicated to the Creatures This Heresie sprung up or rather was stifly maintained under Constantius the Son of Constantine three hundred and twelve Years after Christ and was condemned in the second Occumenical Council at
Will to do good and ascribed no more to Grace but that by it we had our Nature and that by our good Works we obtain Grace they also rejected the Doctrine of Predestination they say the number of the Elect may be increased or diminished that Faith is by Nature but the increase of it from God and that Charity is from Men. They hold that their elect ones have no Sin nor can sin if they would that the Concupiscence of the Flesh is from God and that rich Men that are baptized cannot be saved unless they give away all that they have Celestinus and Julianus were his chief Followers in these Errors St. Augustine and Alypyus his Friend wrote against them They were condemned by five African Councils and also by a sixth Synod at Carthage Anno Christi 419. in the tenth Year of Honorius L. 24. Priscillianus a Spaniard some say a Galatian Father of the Priscillianists under Gratian the Emperour spread his Heresie first in Spain three hundred forty Years after Christ from thence like a Canker it ran through all the West This Heresie was made up of former Heresie for with the Manichees he held the World was made by an evil God with the Sabellians he confounded the Persons of the Trinity with the Origanists he held the Pre-existence of Souls with Astrologers that all humane Events depended upon the Stars with the Stoicks that we sin necessarily and coactively with the Enaratites they abstained from Flesh and with the Gnosticks they rejected the ancient Prophets as ignorant of the Will of God He was condemned in his Absence by the Synod of Aquitane but at his Return into Spain he troubled all things At last he was put to death with Felicissimus Armenius Latronianus and Euchocia his Companions Priscillianus himself confessed unto Euclius the Prafect That he kept Conventicles in the Night with filthy Women and that he used to pray amongst them He was condemned of Heresie at Rome by Damasus from whom he appealed to the Emperour Maximus who put him to Death His Body was carried into Spain by his Party by whom he was esteemed first as a Saint then as a Martyr insomuch that at last in matters of Religion they used to swear by his Name LI. Apollinaris Presbyter in Loadicea was the Author of the Apollinarists he divided Christ's Humanity affirming That he assumed Man's Body and a sensitive Soul but not the reasonable or intellective Soul of Man because that was supplied by the Divinity Instead of the Trinity they acknowledge only three distinct degrees of Power in God the greatest is the Father the lesser is the Son and the least of all the Holy Ghost They held that Christ's Soul was consubstantial with his Divinity and that he took not his Flesh from the Virgin but brought it from Heaven that Christ had but one Will that Souls did propagate others and that after the Resurrection the Ceremonial-Law should be kept as before This Heresie brake out three hundred and fifty Years after Christ under Valens the Emperour It was confuted in the Roman Synod by Damasus Bishop of Rome and Petrus Bishop of Alexandria and in the Synod at Constantinople utterly condemned and exploded LII The Adamians or Adamites so called either from one Adam their Author or from Adam the first Man whose Nakedness they imitate sprung up shortly after the Gnosticks and were called Prodiciani from one Prodicus whom they followed of this Sect there be many extant at this day They held it unlawful for Men or Women to wear Cloaths in their Congregation and Assemblies seeing their Meetings were the only Paradise on Earth where they were to have Life Eternal and not in Heaven as Adam then in his Paradise so Christians in theirs should be naked and not cloathed with the Badges of their Sin and Shame They rejected Marriages as diabolical therefore they used promiscuous Copulation in the dark they rejected also all Prayers to God seeing he knew without us what we wanted LIII The Elcesei so called from Elcesa an Impostor and Sampsei from a spotted kind of Serpent which they represented in their changeable Dispositions were much addicted to Judicial Astrology and Sooth-saying They held two Priests one below made of the Virgin a mere man and one above they confound Christ with the Holy Ghost and sometimes they call him Christ's Sister but in a masculine Name to both which Persons they give Longitude Latitude and Locality To Water they ascribe a Divinity and so they did to two Whores Marthus and Marthana the Dust of whose Feet and Spittle they worshipped as holy Relicks they had a certain Apocrypha Book the reading whereof procured Remission of Sins and they held it no Sin to deny Christ in time of Persecution This Heresie began to spread about two hundred and ten Years after Christ under Gordian the Emperour LIV. The Valesians so called from one Valens an Arabian who out of the Doctrine of the Gnosticks or Tatians condemned Marriage and Procreation Therefore his Scholars after the Example of Origen gelded themselves thinking none can enter into Heaven but Eunuchs whereas the Eunuchs Christ speaks of be such as by Continence subdue the Lusts of the Flesh This Heresie springing under Julianus Philippus Emperour about the Year of Christ two hundred and sixteen LV. The Heicitae professed a Monastical Life but withal taught that the Service of God consisted in holy Dances and singing with the Nuns after the Example of Moses and Miriam Exod. 15. upon the overthrow of Pharaoh in the Red Sea Gnosimachi were Haters and Despisers of all Learning or Book-Knowledge teaching that God required nothing from us but a good Life Of these we have too many in this Age. But Christ tells us that Life Eternal consists in Knowledge and God complaineth by the Prophet that his People perish for want of Knowledge So Christ sheweth that Destruction fell on Jerusalem because she knew not her day and the Lord complained that his People had less Knowledge than the Oxe or the Ass therefore God hath given Lips to the Priest to preserve Knowledge and Christ by his own Knowledge hath justified many saith the Prophet The Armenii taught that the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father and not from the Son that Christ rose from the dead on the Sabbath day whereas the Scripture tells us plainly that he arose the third day They observed also the Jewish Sacrifices they used first to baptize the Cross then to worship it they taught it was not Man that sinned but Satan by tempting him and that Man had not propagated by carual Copulation if he had not sinned They denyed Original Sin and held that all who dyed before Christ were damned for Adam's Sin they ascribed no Efficacy to the Sacraments and yet held Baptism absolutely necessary they placed the Children of unbaptized Infants if they were of faithful Parents in earthly Paradise if of unfaithful in Hell they never baptized without administring the
of Steel than Gold but then they wanted a fit Head to resort unto Now serving Heraclius in the same War his Officers used them in the same ill manner Asking for Pay the Treasurer of the Army made them this answer that there was scarce money enough to pay the Roman and Grecian Souldiers and must those Dogs be so importunate for their Wages Provoked herewith and hearing of the same of Mahomet they took to him who much strengthened by them and the rest of their Countreymen soon subjected the three Arabias to him And having defeated the Emperour's Forces sent against him he added some Parts of Syria and Egypt and returning to Mecca there died Frantick in the seventieth year of his Age and twenty third of his Impostures of which he had spent thirteen at Medina and the rest at Mecca His dead Body being kept four dayes in expectation of a Resurrection which he promis'd to perform at the end of three grown full of stench and putrefaction was convey'd to Medina and there interred his Successors out of wicked Policy keeping up the reputation of that Religion after his decease which they derided in his life and called themselves Caliphs and Vicars General to him their Prophet His Corps doth not hang in the Air by force of Loadstones drawing up his Iron Coffin or Chest but lieth buried in the ground as Ludovicus Vertomannus by his own view hath observed But having given an account of this Impostor and his abominable Doctrines I will shew the Ceremonies they use in their Pilgrimages to Mecca This Journey is performed every year and it is held so necessary that he who doth not once in his Life go this Pilgrimage shall be assuredly damn'd whe reas Paradice and Remission of sin is procured to them that go it The Journey is tedious to them of Greece being six months Journey and dangerous by reason of Arabian Thieves Mountains of Sand with which divers are overwhelmed and want of Water in those Desarts Their chief care is to be reconciled to each other before they go for if they leave hot behind them all animosities their Pilgrimage will do them no good They begin their Journey from Caire about three Weeks after their Easter being guarded with 200 Spachi on Dromedaries and 200 Janizaries on Camels with 8 pieces of Ordnance and rich Vestures for the Prophet and a green Velvet covering wrought with Gold to cover his Tomb which the Bassa delivers to the Captain of the Pilgrims The Camels that carry these vestures are covered with cloth of gold and many small Bells The night before they go is kept with great feasting and triumphs No man may hinder his Wife from this Pilgrimage and every Servant is made free that goeth it The Camel that carrieth the Box with the Alcoran is covered with cloth of gold and folk the Box with silk only during the Journey but with Gold and Jewels at their entring into Mecca Musicians also and Singers encompass the Camel and much vain pomp is used They use divers washings by the way where they find water When they come to Mecca the house of Abraham which they fable was miraculously built receiveth a new covering and a new Gate the old vestment is sold to Pilgrims which hath a vertue in it to pardon sins But that you may be the better acquainted with the Mosquita and House of Abraham you are to know that in the midst of the City is the great Mosquita built they say in the time when their Prophet lived It is four square every square half a mile the whole circuit two miles in manner of a Cloyster the Galleries round about are in manner of four Streets these Streets being separated from each other with Pillars of Marble some and some of Lime and Stone In the midst of all separate from the rest is the House of Abraham This Mosquita hath 99 Gotes and five Steeples of which the Talismans call the People to their Devotion And the Pilgrims which are not provided of Tents resort hither Men and Women lying together their House of Prayer becoming a Den of Thieves Barthema saith that this Temple is round like the Colisco at Rome that at every Entrance is a descent of ten or twelve steps on both sides whereof stand Jewellers who sell Gems only within it is valuted gilded and odoriferous beyond what can be spoken for there are four or five hundred men which sell Powders to preserve dead Corpses and other sweets It seemeth that since his time the Temple and House of Abraham are altered This House is four-square made of speckled Stone twenty Paces high and forty in circuit and upon one side of this House within a Wall there is a Stone of a Span long and half a Span broad which Stone they say fell down from Heaven a voice from Heaven at the same fall being heard That wheresoever this Stone fell there should be built the House of God wherein he will hear the Prayers of Sinners Then was the Stone as white as Snow but now through the kisses of Sinners it is become so black as it is The Entrance into this House is small and high there are without this House 31 Pillars of Brass upon square Stones sustaining a thred of Copper reaching from one to another on which are fastned many burning Lamps The Founder of these was Solyman Being entred into this House through that difficult Passage there stands two Pillars of Marble at the entrance in the midst are three of Aloes Wood covered with Tyles of India of a thousand Colours which serve to underprop the Terratza or Roof It is so dark that they can hardly see within for want of Light nor is it without an evil Smell Without the Gate five Paces is the Pond Zunzun that blessed Pond which the Angel thewed to Agar for her Son Ishmath After many idle Ceremonies performed they go round about Abraham's House seven times then they wash-themselves it the Pond Zunzun of this also they drink and pray for Pardon of their Sins After five days abode at Mecca they go to the Hill of Pardons fifteen miles distant and there they leave all their Sins behind them after they have heard Sermon and prayed and offered Sacrifices Upon their Return they must not look back to the Hill lest their Sins follow them From hence they repair to Medina where Mahomet's Sepulchre is thought to be but by the way they run up a certain Hill which they call the Mount of Health they run that they may sweat out all their Sins Thence they come pure to the Seducers Tomb which notwithstanding they may not see being hanged about with a Silk Curtain which by the Eunuchs being fifty in number to attend on the Tomb and to light the Lamps is taken down when the Pilgrims Captain presenteth the new one without each man gives Handkerchiefs or such like to touch the Tomb therewith this they keep as a special Relique When they return to
innocent insinuations and pretences of Sanctity and contempt of the things of this World These are they that make a laughing-stock of Christianity by their bitter invectives and derision of the Ordinances and Ceremonies of the Christian Religion these are they that make no distinction between Forms and Order for having cryed down the former their Dispensations will not bear with the latter it being their main design to bring the business of Religion to that condition wherein Man was before he had assum'd thoughts of Government that is to say into Anarchy and confusion As for their Blasphemies and horrid expressions of Christian things Mahumetans Jews and Pagans own more Modesty and less Profaneness But to retail their Opinions or to anatomize this Monster we must come to particulars 1. They hold that God Devils Angels Heaven Hell c. are Fictions and Fables 2. That Moses the Baptist and Christ are Impostors and what Christ and his Apostles acquainted the World with as to matter of Religion perished with them and nothing transmitted to us 3. That preaching and praying is useless and that it is but publick lying 4. That there is an end of all Ministry and Administrations and People are to be taught immediately from God 5. They hold Baptism a pure legal Administration nor proceeding from Christ but from John 6. They jest the Scriptures that Divine Legacy of our Salvation out of all Life Reverence and Authority quoting it in driblets and shreds to make it the more ridiculous In their Letters they endeavour to be strangely prophane and blasphemous uttering Atheistical Curses and imprecations which is a kind of canting amongst them as among Gipsies as for example in one you have this style My own hearts-blood from whom I daily receive Life and Being to whom is ascribed all Honour c. Thou art my Garment of Needle-work my Garment of Salvation Eternal Plagues consume you all not sink and damn your Bodies and Souls into devouring fire where none but those who walk uprightly can enter The Lord grant that we may know the worth of Hell that we may scorn Heaven 7. Sin is onely what a man imagines and conceives to be so within himself 8. Ordinances they account poor low things nay the perfections of the Scriptures are so inconsiderable in their apprehensions that they pretend to live above them Their Lives witness without them 9. If you ask them what Christian Liberty is they will tell you that it consists in a Community of all things and among the rest of Women which they paint over with an expression called The enjoyment of the Fellow Creature 10. The enjoyment of the Fellow-Creature cannot but be seconded with lascivious Songs drinking of Healths Musick Dancing and Bawdry Lastly They are those who most of all kick against the Pricks of Authority for Magistracy cannot have any thing more sacred than the Ministry so that they wish as much Policy in the State as Government in the Church which is none at all so to bring an Aegyptian Darkness upon both that the Word might be the less scandalized at their Madnesses and Extravagancies But this Age which is much more faithful in Religions than good Works of Scripture Phrases than of Scripture Practices of Opinions than of Piety has spawned more Religions than that Lady of Holland did Infants to mention all which were to tire my self and Reader therefore I shall quit so nauseous a Subject and look back and give a short account of the several Sects amongst the Jews it not being at all necessary to speak of it in it's Purity that matter having been canvassed by so many others Two Sons Carying their Parents through The flames of Mount Aetna Page 119 LXII The Nazarites were Votaries Numb 6. so called from Nazar to separate for they separated themselves from Wine and strong Drink from coming near the Dead and from the Razor Some were Nazarites for their Life as Sampson John Baptist c. others only for a time to wit thirty days as Absalom who cut his Hair the thirtieth day of his Vow such a Nazarite was Paul Act 21.24 Nazareth was a Village in Galilee where Christ was conceived and bred and therefore was called a Nazarite Mat. 2.23 and his Disciples Nazarites Acts 24.5 but indeed he was the only true Nazarite because he was pure holy and separate from Sinners but he was no legal Nazarite for he drunk Wine and went near the Dead These Hereticks were also called Nazarites who taught that with the Gospel should be joyned the Law of Moses Act. 15.2 Of the Rechabites so called from Rechab their Father we read Jer. 35.2 3 4 c. These neither drunk Wine nor sowed Seed nor built Houses nor planted Vine-yards but like Strangers lived all their days in Tents The Sampsorans acknowledged one God and worshipped him using certain Washings Some of them abstained from living Creatures and would dye for Elxai his Posterity which they had in such Honour that if they went abroad the People would gather up the dust of their feet for Cures and their Spittle and used them for Amulets and Preservatives They admit neither the Apostles nor Prophets they worship Water esteeming it as a God believing that Life is from thence The. Essenes so called from their skill in curing Diseases for they were much given to the Study of Physick in their Opinions were Pythagoreans ascribing all things to Fate offering no Sacrifices but of inanimate things shunning Oaths Pleasures and Wine contenting themselves with Water only and mean Apparel their Garments were white and they had all things in common amongst them They worshipped towards the East observed the Sabbath more strictly than others kept seven Pentecosts every Year to wit every seventh Week one and generally they abstained from Marriage yet some did marry for Procreation They were superstitious in preserving the Names of Angels they were much given to Silence with the Pythagoreans chiefly at Table none were admitted into their Society without four Years Probation There were some of these Essenes contemplative only and lived in Gardens or remote Villages who contented themselves with Bread and Salt others were active and gave themselves to manual Labours these lived in Cities and fared better and eat twice a day LXIII The Sadduces were so called either from Tzedek Justice because they would be accounted the only just men in the World or from Sadok the Author of their Sect who was the Scholar of Antigonus Socheus These rejected all Traditions and Scriptures except the five Books of Moses denyed the Resurrection Pains or Rewards after this Life Angels and Spirits Fate likewise or Destiny ascribing all to man's free will they held also that the Soul dyed and perished with the Body The Samaritans held with the Sadduces that there was no Scripture but the Pentateuch that there was no Resurrection nor Life eternal nor any Traditions to be admitted yet they dissented from the Sadduces in acknowledging Angels in worshipping